To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

The personal reading library of Robert Sterling Clark includes collected works of fiction and history with significant subject development in cookery and horses.

Identification:

CAI ARC 2007.49

Language:

English, French

Arrangement of the Papers

The collection is arranged alphabetically by author and title.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Robert Sterling Clark reading library is comprised of ca. 800 titles that document a broad range of interests. Fiction and history predominate, though there is significant subject development in cookery and horses. The collection includes multiple volumes by a number of authors, including substantive first edition holdings of Pearl S. Buck, John Galsworthy, Sinclair Lewis, and P. G. Wodehouse. Many of the volumes include minor penciled annotations by RSC which record reading dates and brief thoughts on the volume in hand.

Biographical Note

Born in 1877, Robert Sterling Clark, along with his three brothers, was heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Their father, Alfred Corning Clark, was the son of Edward Corning Clark, Isaac Singer's business partner. RSC attended Yale University and graduated in 1899 with a degree in engineering. He joined the army and his service during the Boxer Rebellion earned him the commission of first lieutenant. In 1908, RSC undertook an expedition to the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in a remote area of northern China. He intended to carry out ethnographic and zoological research, as well as conduct surveys and create maps. His partner in this undertaking was Arthur de Carle Sowerby. Sowerby, in addition to being a naturalist, explorer, artist and editor, collected specimens for the British Museum and other museums of natural history in the United States and China. The expedition came to an abrupt end when Hazrat Ali, their translator and surveyor, was murdered.

Shortly thereafter, RSC moved to Paris. In 1909 he inherited various pieces of art from his family and these pieces became the foundation of the collection he was to build over the ensuing decades. He made his first purchases in 1912 and was initially attracted primarily to Dutch, Flemish and Italian old masters. Soon, his interests expanded to include silver, prints and drawings, rare books, and more contemporary artists such as Renoir, Degas, Sargent and Homer.

During this time RSC met Francine Clary. Formerly an actress with the Comedie Francaise, Francine was the mother of a daughter, Viviane Modzelewska. Francine and RSC began seeing one another in 1910, but didn't marry until 1919. Their relationship was a source of tension with RSC's family and eventually led to a rift between him and his brother, Stephen. Stephen, the youngest of the Clark brothers, had shouldered the daily administration of the family’s fortunes. RSC felt that he was at a disadvantage because of the way the Singer trusts were constructed. Should something befall RSC, the money would pass back into the Clark family rather than to Francine and her daughter. When he was unable to resolve the issue within the family, he and Stephen had a falling out that would never be mended and RSC sued unsuccessfully in court to break up the trusts.

RSC and Francine were partners in assembling the collections that would eventually be housed at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, visiting galleries and dealers together. Another keen interest was horse breeding. RSC owned large operations that bred, raised and trained racehorses, first in Belgium and then in Virginia. In 1951, his horse, Never Say Die, won the Epsom Derby, the first American-bred horse ever to do so.

After considering various options for the eventual disposition of their artworks and objects, including donation to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and founding a museum in New York City, RSC and Francine decided to locate their collections in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1950 and continuing through RSC's death late in 1956, their lives were focused on building the Institute, both physically and administratively.

Document Types:

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

This material is currently restricted.

Administrative Information

Custodial History

Robert Sterling Clark's Collection of Rare Books was accessioned into the library in 1971. Selected volumes were incorporated into the general collection, while the remaining volumes were designated rare and housed in the old Rare Book Room. Selected rare volumes, including early editions and illustrated texts, were eventually shifted to locked compact storage. Roughly 800 titles remained in the old Rare Book Room and were accessioned into the Archive as the Reading Library series of the Sterling and Francine Clark Papers.

Preferred Citation

Acquisition Information

In February 2008 the Sterling and Francine Clark reading library was transferred from the library to the archives.

Processing Information

The books that comprise the Sterling and Francine Clark reading library have been individually catalogued, labeled, and reshelved. Uncatalogued volumes were catalogued and existing records were updated to document transfer to the archive.

Portions of Clark's original collection of rare books were sold or donated to other institutions prior to the establishement of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Clark initiated the development of a turf library at the Thoroughbred Club of America, Lexington, Kentucky, with a gift of racing manuals and studbooks. In 1961, H. P. Krause donated the Robert Sterling Clark Collection of Books of Horses and Military History to the The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Separated Material

Some time after the original accession in 1971, The Robert Sterling Clark Collection of Rare Books was divided between the general collection and rare volumes.